US Finance World

Even though my credit score has recovered from its pretty hidious 500s phase, up to over 680 now, I dont see my wife and I looking to purchase a home anytime soon.

At least in our market (portland), it continues to make much more sense for us to rent. We also dont know where we may end up location wise in a few years, and so we will continue to rent.

Its funny how the perception of renting has changed in the last few years since the housing meltdown. I have a half-dozen friends who just a few years ago couldnt stop talking about their new condo/townhouse/home purchase.

Now?

Not so much.

Most seem envious that we rent. We have flexibility. Wed never think about purchasing the unit we rent (it would be too much $$), but for a few years of cheapish rentits wonderful.

I dont think we will always rent however.

Even after my disastrous first home ownership experience, there was something neat about owning a piece of land and the home on top of it.

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In the last few years, there has been a multitude of references to the Big Five Canadian banks as model of a stable banking industry (by market cap, the Big Five are: RBC, TD, BNS,  BMO and CIBC). There has also been multiple recommendations to invest in Canadian banks. While in years past, it may have been easy to describe all members of the Big Five Canadian banks as one monolithic entity (and previous studies have shown the return of investment in the Big Five banks were more or less the same), something interesting has happened.

Aided by the relatively unimpaired flow of capital and boxed in by the more or less tapped out Canadian market, each of the Big Five banks are pursuing diverging corporate strategies, eschewing the traditional strategy of staying local (as an editorial note, the Competition Bureaus refusal to approve bank mergers in 1998 was, in hindsight, a smart move; rather than allow the banks do the easy thing, they forced them to be competitive globally).

For example, TD has become Well Fargo east: a bank with a large retail focus.

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I’ve reached one of those milestone birthdays where you stop and take stock of your life.

I’ve been looking at where I’ve been and where I’m going professionally, personally, and financially. In looking at my finances, I’ve realized that there are eleven actions that have contributed directly to my success. These actions have all been things that were within my control. Certainly I’ve been fortunate or “lucky” in many ways, but by controlling these eleven things, I made the most of that good fortune and improved my circumstances over what they otherwise would have been. Here are the eleven actions that have benefited my finances the most.

Completed my education: I went to college and then graduate school. Granted, my major wasn’t anything earth shattering, but the education was valuable nonetheless. Beyond the books, my education taught me to manage time, to think for myself, to evaluate situations before leaping in, and to be a more informed person generally. It also instilled

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Several ladies in my neighborhood have recently gotten involved with direct selling organizations like Pampered Chef, Tupperware, and Usborne Books. As a result, my mailbox overflows with invitations to all of their “parties.” While I’m happy that they’ve found something to bring in some extra money, these invitations are tricky because I’m just not interested in the products they are selling. I feel like I can get better prices and quality through other retailers, plus I’m usually not in the market for any of the stuff they are selling. The question that I’m faced with about once per week these days is: Do I go to the party to be supportive and social even if I don’t intend to buy anything, or do I decline politely?

I’ve decided that the answer is a wishy-washy, “It depends.” It amuses me that many of these invitations come from women I barely know. We may exchange a smile if we pass while out walking, or wave if we pass in our cars, but I’ve never been in their homes or invited to any other parties they have thrown. Suddenly, though, they

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I’m sick to my stomach as I write. We projected to be debt free by February, and were not there yet.  Call me guilty of “counting chickens from eggs” but we’d counted on our Adoption Tax Credit to pay off our remaining debt.  According to the accountant, it’s just the right amount to get us out of debt for good (except the house).

So what happened?

What does it mean?

Well, we’ve still got debt.  A little bit of credit card debt, and a little bit of adoption loan on a Lending Club loan. We’ll keep plugging away at it like we had, using the Debt Snowball, the Side Hustle and the budget and envelopes. But it’s going to take longer than we wanted.  The credit card will be paid off when we get the tax refund (as soon as they review the 96 pages of documentation that we sent plus 30 days for shipping).

The Lending Club loan doesn’t have much of a balance once, and with no other payments, we’ll be able to easily pay it over the following few months, but still. I’m frustrated.

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By far the largest number of emails I receive has to do with my posts on severance pay. The questions often have to do with whether an employee received a reasonable package when terminated. The issue always is that reasonable is a contextual question both in terms of the personal circumstances of the ex-employee and the period of the economic cycle one is dismissed.

I typically do not post severance related comments on the blog to shield the privacy of the commentator who may be sharing very personal information. However, the common theme centers around where one can go to determine whether they are receiving a fair severance pakcage. Keeping in mind that I live in Ontario, and the information I provide is confined to this jurisdiction, I would offer these practical steps if one has been dismissed.

First, do NOT hide in shame if you have been dismissed. In this day and age, everyone gets down-sized, right-sized, dismissed or however they spin ones dismissal.

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Moving from one side of town to the other is complicated enough – but what if you need to move to the other side of the world? Find out how my family managed it – and why we’ll always travel with a measuring tape.

The first time my husband and I moved house was a hectic but manageable affair – we simply packed our cars and excitedly lugged our meagre belongings to our new place.

Eight years on and three children later, we found ourselves moving house again – but this time we were going halfway around the world, to Singapore. Eek!

It was a very different situation – we had filled a whole house but were moving to a small flat with practically no storage. Plus, we found out we were moving whilst in the midst of house renovations, which were due to finish at the same time my husband started his new job. Aarrggh!

But we got there in the end – and learnt a fair bit in the process. Check out

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The group buying site Groupon filed paperwork with the SEC to launch as a publicly traded company under an initial public offering (IPO).  Hot on the heels of LinkedIn IPOs and the much anticipated Facebook IPO, one merely has to substitute information highway (I feel so 1994) with social media and, to quote Yogi Berra, it is like deja vu all over again.

The problem though remains the same. Essentially, one is investing in a trend and what may be popular may not be right. Groupon, for example, has never turned a profit, burns cash like it was run by the United States Congress (its operating expense is more than double its revenue growth suggesting large inefficiencies as well as lack of fiscal discipline) and the executives have a disquieting habit of using the business as their own personal piggy bank (as this writer notes, Groupon raised nearly $1 billion in venture capital money and used substantially most of it to cash out their own holdings).

Heres the more fundamental problem with tech stocks in general.

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